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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22399876">Reflecting On You</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeafoamSoul/pseuds/SeafoamSoul'>SeafoamSoul</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bakery AU, F/M, Vampire AU, there is an au everywhere you look tbh</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 10:13:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,566</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22399876</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeafoamSoul/pseuds/SeafoamSoul</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>You’re new to town, starting up a bakery. You have your secrets, and so does the friend you never expected to make. When those secrets come to light, they change your lives for the better.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Elias Samson/Original Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Reflecting On You</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first day in your new business in a new town was nerve wracking, to say the very least. You had just gotten to town two days before to move into your apartment and get your bakery ready for the onslaught of holiday orders that would no doubt be coming in, starting with the Halloween orders. What you didn’t expect was for what seemed like the entire community in the small town to drop by, placing orders for Halloween parties, sampling what you had in the display cases, and welcoming you to their town. </p><p>It was a nice change of pace, if you were being honest with yourself. You tended to move a lot, have ever since you were a child and your parents’ jobs required it. As an adult, able to make your own decisions, you moved just as much as you did when you were a child, only this time your parents weren’t the ones who affected those decisions. The places you usually moved to were large cities, places you tended to blend into and had a little privacy. </p><p>Now, though, in this small town, you realized what you had been missing while wading through crowded sidewalks in bigger cities. You had only been open for a day and already, you felt at home. Usually that feeling took months to hit you, and it would generally be months later that you were gearing up for a move. This new town, small and personable, was already different, and you felt it easier to breathe already.</p><p>After a day of near-constant foot traffic, you were wiping down the counters, preparing to close, when the bell above the door jingled softly. </p><p>“Hey, welcome to-” you began, looking up at your customer, stopping mid-sentence.</p><p>The man in question was breathtaking and you had to force yourself to blink, taking him all in. He was tall, long brown hair tied back in a bun, hazel eyes soft as he looked around your bakery, moving toward you at the front counter. There was something about him that intrigued you, and you had to mentally shake your head at yourself. There was no way you were getting roped into anything, not right now, preferably not ever. Not with your history. </p><p>“This is a nice place,” he said as he finally stood in front of you, breaking you out of your reverie. </p><p>“Oh, thank you! Would you like to try anything? I’m about to close up but I can give you some time to pick something out?” The last bit came out as more of a question than a statement, but at least you were actually focused on your business rather than being entranced by his eyes. </p><p>“I’m fine, really, I just wanted to introduce myself. It seems like everyone else in this town has, and I didn’t want to be the only one to not come by. I’m Elias,” he greeted, holding his hand out toward you. </p><p>You took his hand in yours, noting in the back of your mind how firm his grip was as you introduced yourself. And that was it, he left you to watch as he walked away, waving at you one last time as he stepped outside.</p><p>Looking back, you never expected for that interaction to lead you to where you were now.</p><p>—</p><p> </p><p>Over the course of several weeks, you and Elias had formed an easy friendship. He was at the bakery everyday after sunset, sitting at one of the tables you had scattered around the front of the shop. He stayed there for hours, chatting with you during the lulls of each business day. Though it was obvious the two of you were hiding something from each other, you weren’t too concerned about it. You enjoyed having your privacy, keeping your secrets to yourself, and you figured by the way Elias shrugged away from everyone in the neighborhood who came into the bakery that he felt the same way. And the conversations were easy, flowing without having to opt for small talk about the weather. The two of you got along so well, so much better than you had expected to.</p><p>You were comfortable with him, more comfortable with him than anyone else. Every time he walked into the bakery, you found yourself absentmindedly rubbing the inside of your left forearm, feeling something akin to hope when his soft hazel eyes met yours from the threshold. Still, you shoved those feelings down deep and focused more on cultivating this friendship, growing closer to Elias everyday. That’s what you needed right now - friendship - especially after what you had been through in the last city you thought you could call home. </p><p>As Thanksgiving drew nearer, darkness shrouded the bakery earlier than usual and you stayed way later than you meant to every night, trying to stay ahead of your orders and keep things in order. Elias had taken to making sure you didn’t need him to stay with you, keep you company and make sure you were alright as you started working longer hours but you brushed him off. You had met everyone in the town and had never felt safer than you did when surrounded by the people in the community. </p><p>Now, though, you wished you had taken Elias up on his offer.</p><p>It was dark, darker than usual as a storm rolled through town. With a glance at the clock on your oven, you sighed, realizing that you had officially been at work for way too long, even for you. You got to work, putting all your things away quickly, cleaning up as you went. As you opened the door to the refrigerator, you heard the bell above the door jingle quietly followed by the floorboards creaking.</p><p>Time seemed to come to a stand still, your heart beat rushing in your ears. You were sure whoever was in the front could hear it, and you panicked. Without thinking twice, you grabbed a marble rolling pin and creeped to the front, lurking in the doorway that separated the front from the kitchen. You saw someone bent over the cash register, pilfering through it and you started toward them, rolling pin raised high over your head.</p><p>You never got a chance to get close to them, however, as - someone? Something? - Burst through the door in a dark blur, taking the thief and rushing them out of the bakery. Before you could even take a breath in, the blur was back and Elias was in front of you, grabbing the rolling pin from your hands. </p><p>“Are you okay?” he asked, putting the rolling pin aside and taking your face in his hands, eyes studying your own. </p><p>“What…the fuck,” you muttered, looking from Elias to the door and back. “How the fuck did you do that?”</p><p>“Do what?” he asked quickly, dropping his hands from your face and shoving them into his front pockets. </p><p>“Get here so quick. Get rid of that person. And come back. It barely took me enough time to breathe before you were back here,” you explained, eyes narrowed at Elias. He was feigning nonchalance so well, a little too well.</p><p>“I think that’s the stress talking. Come on, I’ll walk you home and you can get some rest and then you’ll realize that I never left. I decided to stay with you while you worked past closing and just managed to talk that guy out of robbing the place. Or ever coming back to bother you.” </p><p>“I’m not an idiot, Elias. I know what I saw. Now you have three seconds to start explaining yourself or-”</p><p>“Or what?” he interrupted your tirade, his normally soft eyes turned harsh, darker, as he stared you down. “There’s nothing you can do that will make me explain anything I don’t want to.”</p><p>It was silent as the two of you stared at each other, the air tense between you. </p><p>“Fine,” you finally said, moving around Elias to go back to the kitchen. “In that case, get out of the bakery and if I ever see you here again, I’ll call the cops on you for loitering, okay?” And then you ducked behind the door, tossing your apron on the counter and gathering your keys and wallet from the drawer you tucked them into. “Should I go ahead and call them now?” you spat as you walked back to the front, rolling your eyes as Elias sat at his normal table. “Because I though I made myself clear-”</p><p>“I can explain it to you,” Elias said suddenly, looking pained to say it. “I can, I promise, but I can’t do it here. Come to my house and I’ll tell you everything.”</p><p>“Or what?” you threw back at him, arms crossed over your chest. </p><p>“Please,” he begged, eyes sad as he looked at you. “Let me explain. I’ll feel better if you know everything.”</p><p>“What are you talking about?” It seemed like he was having a completely different conversation than the one you were a part of, even while he was conversing with you. Of course, it made you curious. You could tell from your daily conversations he was hiding something, and now was your chance to find out what it was.</p><p>“Do you trust me?” he asked, standing from his chair.</p><p>That was a loaded question if there ever was one. You had a history of trusting people too easily, people who hadn’t shown you they deserved it. You came to this town ready to be cautious, keep to yourself, but your plans were thrown to the wayside when you met Elias. Finally, you sighed and nodded, leading Elias to the front door to lock it behind you, gesturing for him to lead the way.</p><p>—</p><p> </p><p>“Wait, wait, wait,” you said, standing up and pacing in front of Elias on the couch. “A vampire. Like, a sucking people’s blood vampire? Stake to the heart and you turn to dust vampire? Holy water burning you vampire? Super strength vampire? OH MY GOD do you turn into a bat? That explains why you never come into the bakery during the day, right?” Your questions were coming rapidly, not giving Elias any time to answer them. “I wanna know about the bat thing first, actually,” you told him, finally sitting in front of him again.</p><p>“No, I don’t turn into a bat, yes to everything else. But I don’t kill people, if that’s what you’re worried about. I feed from them, but it’s only a bite and then they tend to forget it ever happened, unless I wanted them to remember. I’ve never met anyone who needed to remember it, though, who I wanted to remember the fact that I had to drink from them. And I have super strength. And speed. But you know that from earlier.” He straightened himself on the couch, resting his forearms on his thighs. “You’re taking this a lot better than I expected.”</p><p>You laughed at that, getting comfortable on the couch yourself. “Teenage me would be screaming right now. I always dreamed of a hot vampire coming into my life unexpectedly, re-charting my life path.”</p><p>“A hot vampire, huh?” Elias had his eyes focused steadily on your face, a fact you ignored so as to keep the heat from rushing to your cheeks. It was useless, of course, since you were pretty sure he was acutely aware of your heart beating rapidly.</p><p>“Can you see your reflection?” you asked suddenly, eyes looking around his living room for a decorative mirror, anything, to see if his reflection would show.</p><p>“No,” he smiled, though his eyes no longer reflected any softness at all. “I had a painting of myself, once, but I lost it.”</p><p>“When were you turned?” </p><p>“200 years ago.”</p><p>200 years was a long time to live without seeing your reflection, you thought, without seeing what everyone else was able to see when they met you. And before you knew it, you were planning.</p><p>—</p><p> </p><p>Thanksgiving passed without incident, and Christmas was on the horizon. You were even busier at the bakery than before, but you were never alone. Elias would come in everyday the moment the sun was low in the sky and wouldn’t leave until you did, walking you home. It was nice, settling into a familiar routine with him. Your friendship grew stronger as the days passed, and you knew it would only be a matter of time until you had to reveal your secrets to him.</p><p>The first week of December, to be exact.</p><p>You were in the kitchen, the front door locked with a new, sturdier set of hardware thanks to the vampire settled on the counter next to you. Your hands were messy, covered in cranberry orange bread dough when his voice broke the silence.</p><p>“Why did you come here? We don’t get many new people, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. That’s why everyone was so eager to welcome you to town.”</p><p>Your hands stilled in the dough, shoulders tensing. “I um, just needed a change of pace. A change of scenery,” you explained, kneading the dough rougher than necessary. </p><p>“You can tell me the truth, you know,” Elias said, voice soft in the quiet of the bakery. “You don’t have to. But you can.”</p><p>With a sigh, you pulled your hands from the bread dough and went to the sink, washing them quickly with your back to Elias. After a few steadying breaths, you turned and walked back towards him, leaning against the counter directly across from him.</p><p>“I thought I’d found a home before here,” you began, tossing your hand towel onto the counter. “I was happy. I was working at a bakery, doing what I loved, and found my soulmate.” Your hand went to the inside of your forearm without a thought, rubbing the skin there through your long sleeved shirt. “I never saw his tattoo, just…Took his word for it. I trusted him blindly, love will do that to you. And things just kept getting more and more serious between us, so serious that I thought we were gonna make the next move. When I found an engagement ring in his coat, I was ecstatic. Things were finally going to work out exactly how I wanted them to. But then,” you sighed, shaking your head. “It turns out he was with another girl the whole time, his real soulmate. He was going to propose to her. He didn’t care about me, not really, just wanted to string me along, see how far he could take it.”</p><p>“That’s…Awful,” Elias breathed, eyes wide.</p><p>You shrugged, fiddling with the ties on your apron. “It’s my fault, anyway. I shouldn’t have taken his word for it. I should have demanded to see his tattoo. I guess that’s what I get for being so naive.”</p><p>“It’s not your fault that he strung you along and treated you like garbage.” Elias’ voice was loud, louder than you expected it to be, and it shocked you into allowing your eyes to meet his for the first time during the entire conversation. “You can’t blame yourself for someone else being an asshole.”</p><p>“Well, it’s over now,” you shot him a half smile, moving back to your neglected dough, taking the opportunity to collect yourself from the sudden shockwave of emotions his statements sent through you. “What about your soulmate?” you asked suddenly, separating the dough into equal parts and setting them aside.</p><p>“I’ll never know,” he admitted. “My tattoo disappeared when I was turned, and my memory of my human years is fuzzy at best. It’s better this way, though. No one has to worry about being in love with a monster.” </p><p>The laugh Elias let out was humorless, lifeless, and you finally realized how being a vampire affected him. He was usually so good at hiding any negativity in his life, opting instead to be a shining beacon of joy for you. But sometimes, like when he told you he hasn’t seen his reflection in 200 years, he allowed some of his sadness to shine through, letting you a little further into his life.</p><p>And that’s when you really decided to double down and try to find a way to make his life better, to bring him joy. His friendship meant the world to you, and you refused to let him go through this life thinking he was unappreciated. Not when he was the only one you could trust, could reveal your own troubles to. </p><p>—</p><p> </p><p>It turned out that finally showing Elias his reflection was both harder and easier than you expected it to be. Harder in that none of your ideas worked. You weren’t artistic, couldn’t draw, and couldn’t commission artwork of him without a picture, which would never work because he didn’t show up in photos. Smartphone cameras gave the same result, a picture of the background as if Elias wasn’t standing there. You wanted to describe how he looked to him, but you knew your words wouldn’t do him any justice. He truly was the most awe-inspiring person you’d ever known, and you wanted him to know that, to see it in himself. You knew your words didn’t have that power. </p><p>But it was easier in that you just stumbled upon the solution to the problem accidentally on Christmas Eve. You were working hard on a mirror glaze cake for your own Christmas celebration, mixing the glaze together as Elias watched from his normal perch on the counter in the bakery’s kitchen. As you poured the glaze over the chilled cake, watching the white, red, and green swirl together over the surface, Elias stepped up beside you.</p><p>“That’s amazing!” He smiled at you and you felt pride swell in your chest as he wrapped an arm around your shoulder. When he looked down at the cake, watching the glaze settle, he gasped, leaning closer.</p><p>“What?” you asked, looking down as well. And then you saw it.</p><p>Elias’ reflection, though fuzzy and wavering, was staring at you from the surface of the cake.</p><p>“Oh,” he breathed, removing his arm from your shoulders as he kept staring at his reflection, eyes wide and unblinking. You were glad you were able to do this for him, especially with Christmas being tomorrow, but the reflection wasn’t as clear as you would have liked.</p><p>“Elias,” you said softly, breaking him out of his reverie. When he tilted his head just slightly in your direction, eyes still locked on the cake, you knew you had his attention. “I think if the glaze was a different color, you’d be able to see yourself even clearer. Come on, we’ll go to my apartment and we can see which color works best, alright? I don’t wanna be in here tomorrow and have people think the bakery is open.”</p><p>“Can we take this one with us?” he asked, hands already underneath the baseboard of the cake.</p><p>“Of course.” </p><p>On the walk to your place, his eyes never left the cake, and your eyes never left him. There was an ache in your cheeks from your near-constant smile, but that didn’t matter at all in this moment. All that mattered was Elias and his near-tangible joy.</p><p>—</p><p> </p><p>“This is the last one!” you called over your shoulder to Elias in the early morning hours as you pushed your sleeves up and started mixing one last glaze. None of the colors you’d worked on all night worked how you wanted them to, none of them offering Elias a clear reflection of himself. He didn’t seem to mind, he was entranced in even the fuzzy reflections of his face, but you wanted nothing less than perfection for the man in your kitchen. You just hoped the blood red glaze you had in front of you would do the trick.</p><p>Elias stepped next to you as you poured the glaze. Suddenly, his fingers were on the tattoo on your forearm, the tattoo you worked so hard to keep hidden. As the glaze settled, his fingers traced the thick lines of black ink on your arm that came together to form a magnificent blossom.</p><p>“I haven’t seen this in 200 years,” he whispered, bringing your arm up closer to him. “I’ve forgotten all about it.”</p><p>You felt your heart stop dead in your chest. “Wh-what?”</p><p>“This was my tattoo,” Elias explained, fingers still tracing the lines on your arm. “Same design, same place. Same everything.”</p><p>“Elias, that’s not funny,” you said, tearing your arm away from his grip. “You know why I’m here, what led me here. How you could even joke about it…” As you shook your head, trying to gather your thoughts, your eyes trailed to the inside of his left forearm of their own accord. There, where you knew the flesh was smooth and untainted, black lines were coming to the surface. “Oh.”</p><p>There, right before your very eyes, a matching magnolia was blossoming onto Elias’ arm. You brought your arm back up next to his, comparing the two marks. Identical. In every way.</p><p>It was silent between the two of you, your focus on your arms pressed together. Then, as if moved by an unseen force, the two of you averted your gazes to the mirror cake in front of you in unison. A clear, unwavering reflection was staring back at the two of you, every detail in Elias’ face accounted for.</p><p>“Merry Christmas,” you whispered, watching as Elias’ face broke out into a smile larger than any you’d ever seen him give before. </p><p>In the blink of an eye, he turned his attention to you, his arms wrapping around your waist as he leaned down to press his lips to yours. The kiss was urgent, frenzied almost, and you found your hands settling on his chest, fingers grasping the thin material of his black v neck. When the kiss deepened, you nipping at his bottom lip, Elias lifted you from the floor. With a squeal, you wrapped your legs around his waist and he was moving, making it through your bedroom faster than you ever thought possible. </p><p>With one last bruising kiss pressed to your lips, Elias tossed you lightly on the bed, smile growing when you giggled out his name as you landed. And then he was over you, surrounding you completely in his presence. One of his hands fell to your arm, fingers absentmindedly tracing the tattoo again while he busied his mouth on your neck. </p><p>The mere thought of his mouth on your neck sent you into a fit of giggles, even as you arched your body into his above you.</p><p>“What’s so funny?” he asked, trailing his lips up your jaw.</p><p>“Nothing, nothing,” you sobered immediately, turning your head to allow him greater access as your hands pushed under his t shirt. “You’re just really into necks huh?”</p><p>Elias growled low in his throat, mouth right by your ear. A split second later, he had readjusted himself on the bed, pressing his thick thigh between your legs with his mouth poised wide open above your throat. You mewled loudly, grinding hard against his thigh and tilting your neck more to him. With a smirk, Elias sat up for just a moment, literally ripping your jeans from your legs before leaning down to scrape his teeth against the sensitive skin of your throat.</p><p>“Fuck, Elias,” you moaned, hips moving faster as you ground against his thigh. His hard length was resting on your hip but you couldn’t get your brain to focus on that fact. Rather, all you could focus on was how his jeans moved deliciously against the lace of your underwear, pressing roughly against your clit. His teeth were still on your throat, teeth teasing against your skin. </p><p>As he moved to the other side of your neck, his hands fell to your hips, helping your movements along. His teeth scraped a little harder on the newly exposed skin at the same time that he jerked your hips roughly against his. You were pressed impossibly close to his thigh, hips rolling desperately as he held you tight against the rough denim he still wore.</p><p>“Elias, please.” Your voice came out in a high pitched whine as you lost control of the movement of your hips, one hand tangling in Elias’ hair to pull him closer to your neck. “Bite me,” you pleaded. You could feel the heat in your belly, your hips still moving against Elias’ thigh as his hands helped you along. </p><p>With another growl near your ear, his teeth bit down fully into the skin of your throat and he pulled you roughly against his thigh. Your eyes slammed shut, mouth falling open with a shout as you came, seeing nothing but brilliant flashes of white behind your eyelids. </p><p>Slowly, Elias licked at the wound on your neck, stopping what you were sure was blood as you came back down, limbs heavy. His hands were still on your hips, his lips pressing open mouthed kisses against the heated skin of your throat. </p><p>“Seems like someone has a biting kink,” he quipped, voice even as he straightened above you, his hazel eyes meeting yours.</p><p>“Oh, shut up,” you laughed, rolling your eyes. With a shove on his shoulder, he rolled underneath you, positions completely opposite. “There’s other things you could be doing with that mouth instead of trying to be funny.”</p><p>Elias barked out a laugh, instantly sobering when your hand cupped his hard length through his jeans. With an innocent smile, you moved down his body, watching as his eyes slammed shut in anticipation. </p><p>—</p><p> </p><p>“Elias, please, just come look,” you begged, straightening out this week’s red mirror glaze cake on the counter.</p><p>“I’m sure I look the same as I did last week, sugar,” he said, moving across the bakery’s kitchen to you nonetheless.</p><p>“You went 200 years without seeing your reflection and I’m gonna make up for it,” you said for what you were sure was the thousandth time in the past few weeks. </p><p>The new year had begun with Elias by your side in your apartment, watching the ball drop in New York on your TV, pressing a sweet kiss on your lips as the clock struck midnight. The next day,it was back to work for you. Business had slowed down considerably with the holidays finally over and everyone recovering from their celebrations, which gave you plenty of time to make a mirror cake whenever you wanted Elias to be able to see himself. It wasn’t your fault that “whenever you wanted” happened to be very frequently.”</p><p>“You don’t have to make up for anything,” he assured you, wrapping an arm around your waist from behind you and pressing a kiss to the crown of your head. You sighed happily, leaning into his embrace and looked down at the cake with him, seeing the reflection of your wide smile and Elias’ softer one. </p><p>His fingers traced the magnolia blossom on your arm mindlessly, his attention still on the reflection before him. He did it frequently, an earnest reminder to the both of you of the Christmas miracle that changed your lives for the better, just a few short months after you moved to town, desperately trying to escape your past.</p><p>And now you never wanted to know a life without the future you had in front of you.</p>
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